Forums Updated to version 4.7.0

vBulletin 3.7.0 contains a plethora of new features, many of which have been long requested by users and customers, while other new features will come as a surprise to everyone. 3.7.0 is slated to be the final major release of the vBulletin 3.x series before all forum development efforts are switched over to vBulletin 4.x, after which 3.x will receive only bug fix releases.

In terms of timescales, the plan is to upgrade vBulletin.com to run on vBulletin 3.7.0 on Monday (November 26th) and to let it run for a few days in order to get some feedback and bug reports before releasing the first public beta.

So, to the important bit: what's new in vBulletin 3.7?

Inline Spam Management and Prevention Tools

Forum spam is an increasing problem for many boards. Unfortunately, due to the visible-source nature of vBulletin and most other forum systems, most preventative measures we might add to the system can simply be reverse-engineered and worked around by persistent spammers.

Therefore, 3.7 contains a new set of tools to help clean up spam and deal with spammers.

Threads and posts can be selected in the usual inline moderation fashion, and then the new 'Delete Threads/Posts as Spam' command can be selected, which will load the spam management interface, which contains options on a single page for removing the spam posts and threads, banning the spammers and finding other spam they may have posted.

Thread Tagging

A new way to facilitate searching and grouping of threads, it is now possible for users to add tags to threads they post or read.

Thread Prefixes

Long requested by users, threads can now have administrator-defined prefixes to their titles.

Reciprocal Friendships Between Users

As part of our new social networking system, users can now request that people on their buddy list confirm their friendship, after which time a person's list of confirmed friends will be viewable to other users.

Public Messaging

While private messages between users have been in vBulletin since version 2.0, vBulletin 3.7 introduces the public messaging system, allowing users to communicate publicly via their profile pages.

User Picture Galleries

vBulletin users can now create albums and upload pictures to their account (not part of the current member gallery).

User-Created Social Groups

To further social cohesion between users and to encourage people to make friends, vBulletin now includes a facility to allow users to create their own social/interest groups.

New Member Profile Page

In order to accomodate all the new features in vBulletin 3.7, the member profile page has been completely redesigned from the ground up.

The new page presents information in a far cleaner and more logical manner, while dividing up information into manageable chunks using a tabbed interface.

Individual profile field categories can be displayed alone in blocks in the right column, in addition to appearing by default in the 'About Me' tab.

Member Customization of Profile Page

The administrator may choose to allow his members to use the profile page customization tool, which allows users to alter fonts, colors, background and borders etc. of their profile page in order to create a more personalized look.

Inline Editing of Profile Field Values

The 'About Me' tab of each member's profile page has edit controls, allowing them to quickly change values without leaving their profile page.

Attachment Viewing Lightbox

Clicking on an attached image will now open a lightbox rather than open a new window, with the image scaled to fit the browser viewport. A click on the image in the lightbox will open it in a new window as before.

Post Edit History

For boards where the history of posts is important, it is now possible to log all edits to posts and then review the changes at a later date.

Inline Moderation Enhanced Authentication

When performing inline moderation actions, board staff will now be required to re-authenticate themselves if they have not done so in their browsing session.

This prevents the possibility of unauthorized parties acting as a moderator on a public computer where a board staff member has accidentally ticked the 'remember me' box.

Navbar Notices

Administrators can now set up custom notifications that will appear underneath the navbar when visiting users fulfil specified criteria.

For example, one may want to set up a notice to display when a user is a member of a particular usergroup, or to show a congratulatory message when a user has posted their 1,000th post etc.

Everything seems in good working condition here. However, somethings are showing that red x we all hate. There are always small little things that act up with a forum update.

The red X's should be taken care of. Where ever you see one, refresh (F5) your browser and it should load correctly.

I'm still seeing red x's as the time of this posting.

Bill (NYCT)

I'm still seeing red x's as the time of this posting.

 

Bill (NYCT)

Me too.

Everything seems in good working condition here. However, somethings are showing that red x we all hate. There are always small little things that act up with a forum update.

I'm still seeing red x's as the time of this posting.

 

Bill (NYCT)

Me too.

You guys must be using Internet Explorer 6. I'll take care of that soon.

Sounds like some interesting changes there. Looks like it'll be for the better.

PS, no red Xs here.

I'm glad for the updates. I don't see any red X's on my end either.

So we can upload pics to the site now